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chase the light

Cinespia (sin-eh-SPEE-uh)



[CINESPIA MINI GALLERY] [VIDEO LINK]

Shakespeare in the Park? That’s for pussies. Movies in the cemetery is where it’s at. During the summer months the film geek society Cinespia [LINK] shows movies at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Projected on the wall of the mausoleum of all things. We grabbed a “plot” and set up our snobby cinema food i.e wine, cheese, crackers, etc. The projector is mounted in the back of a truck and torches line the drives of the cemetery. A great night above and below the stars. They really should call it Filmstock. Minus the breakfast in bed for 400 thousand [LINK]. Two shooting stars and a satellite were spotted. Oh yeah, the movie… Cheezy fun film noir, “Pickup On South Street”. Sample dialogue… “Hey Buddy.” “Hey Mac.” “Hey Muffin.”

Matrix Revolutions Wraps!

Ten months of effects work on The Matrix films has finally come to an end. So a drink is in order. Funny, there were more people who partied it up after Reloaded wrapped than Revolutions. The Production Supervisor gave our Effects Supervisor a blow up doll for all his hard work. I think he might actually use it. He probably deserves a Real Doll [LINK], but after the drinks started flowing he was already giving the plastic one the eye.

Crew Photo Time

What’s the most you can get out of people when you ask them to go totally crazy at 8:30 in the morning? They might raise their arms in the air for you. Now that “The Haunted Mansion” is wrapping up it’s crew photo time. There were three taken. Serious, smiling, and “just go totally crazy”. Whoa, slow down everybody… That’s one wild group of rock star’s there.

Loss Of A Coworker

We lost a coworker recently. He was in Hawaii on vacation [LINK]. It’s incredibly sad what happened to him. I had only met him last week as he was fairly new. He was very fond of Hawaii and always wore a hawaiian print shirt. You know those kinda guys. They always seem to be really nice. In honor of him everybody wore hawaiian shirts on Friday and got together for a picture out front. Kinda nice. Stories like this upset me even if I don’t know the person. Much more than a car wreck or some other accident. I was rescued by a lifeguard once as I was getting pulled under by a rip current. I had been out swimming and was ready to come in when a rip current hit me and started dragging me under. The most terrifying thing you can imagine and I was already exhausted from swimming. I was able to signal but I was already swallowing water when he got to me. Had he been any later, who knows. I’ve grown up around the ocean my whole life but since then I’ve carried a healthy respect of the ocean and will never swim in it without fins. It’s just too unpredictable. Your comfort zone in the water isn’t necessarily a safe one. You think salt water tastes bad? Try it in your lungs.

Labor Day Eats

Fire, carbon, flesh, and ambiance. A lowkey end to a non-laborious Labor Day. Even though I usually cook for one, I like breaking out the big ‘ol Weber grill just to have the flames shoot up about 6 feet when you light the coals. Ladies and gentleman and neighbors… I have made fire! I am Alpha Male. Hear me roar. All the neighbors peered out their windows in fright as I frantically poked the coals to a reasonable level. Then I leaned over the pit and shot close-up photographs which really frightened them. I think they were keeping an eye on me for my own safety. The teriyaki chicken? Awesome. The italian sausage? Juicilicious. The watermelon? Lovely.

I’m All Artsy Fartsy

Since I’ve been on a bit of a shopping spree as of late, I headed over to Wacko / Soap Plant / La Luz De Jesus [LINK]. They’re always good for some cash outlay by me. Being a fan of low brow art, a couple prints caught my eye. Well, almost anything with tikis on it catches my eye. I bought one by the artist Aaron Marshall [LINK] from Canada. It’s called “You Think I’ll Take Your Order, Boy? You Must Be Fucking Dreaming!”. The ultimate goal though is to secure 7 particular Mark Ryden [LINK] paintings. Four of which are tiki themed and one of girls on a carousel. Pele, Exotica, Tiki God, Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers, The Debutante, Princess Sputnik and another which is fairly rare.

Anna-nanna-banana-fana-fo-fana

[BANANA SPLIT PARTY AT IMAGEWORKS GALLERY]

Guised as Ken Ralston’s birthday, it was banana split time again at Imageworks. Anything to get away from the desk.

The Day The Circus Of Heaven Came To Town

I got out of work pre-sunset and when I pulled out of the parking structure the world was going through a filter. It was just bizarre. The sky was going nuts and everything had a red glow. Buildings, people, cars, green grass. It was all red from the fiery clouds. No need to enhance this one tonight. An au natural sunset.

Bug Suicide, Sunset And City Lights

Don’t do it little bug! Life is worth living. You are loved. You’re kinda ugly, but that’s no reason to leap. It’s 7 stories straight down. After talking to him a bit I found out he was just their to enjoy the sunset and city lights. Kinda like me, but with a much more dangerous viewing spot. Crazy lil’ bug. Super panoramic of out of focus Hollywood lights.

Imageworks Is For Real Now

For years we had the most pathetic excuse for a website. [LINK] For a visual effects company you’d expect so much more. They finally got their act together and it looks like the real thing now. [LINK] I’m glad they kept the Flash to a minimum.

Singing About Good Things And The Sun That Lights The Day

L.A. has the best sunsets during the summer. Brilliant colors when there are no clouds, and brilliant colors when there are clouds. It doesn’t matter. I had to pick my parents up from Union Station in downtown for their trip to Michigan. I went a little early and walked over to Olvera Street and hung out on a bench to people watched. Or they walked by and watched me.

The Jacuzzi Dogs

Every other night or so I go out the the jacuzzi and there’s a regular crowd out there that shoots the shit. It’s usually comprised of some combination of the Actor(s), the Director, the Editor, the Graphic Designer, the Visual Effects Artist (me), and Roger. It’s the epitome of what you’d expect from a crowd in L.A. Everybody’s in the business, except for Roger who soaks it all in. Roger is a large black man who has so many wild stories I start to wonder if he’s making half of them up. He’s sort of the unofficial overseer of the jacuzzi. There’s also an older lady who speaks way to frankly and says she’s dated Warren Beattie, Timothy Leary and Robert Atkins the diet guru. Anway, tonight, Actor says he’s going to be on the show “Monk” [LINK] at 10:00. His role? A bad actor in a stage play that gets accidently killed when a prop knife is swapped with a real one. The episode is called “Mr. Monk Goes To The Theater”. [LINK] Since the pool closes at 10:00 we all scurried off to watch. Too funny. Just 5 minutes ago I was sitting in the jacuzzi with Actor, and next thing you know he’s dying on my TV. I love L.A.

No Strings Attached

Today the Gods of Wireless Networking looked down upon me and smiled. With no real place for my new Apple Airport Extreme, the only logical space seemed to be in the center of my chain of tea lights. It needs its own shrine anyway. The umbilical cord has been cut, I’m all grown up now.

Chuck’s Chicks Explained

There were two fairly identical stories that came out about “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” this week. One focusing on just the Mongolian Dam including my shot. [LINK] The other on my shot and a few others. [LINK] Of course artists are never mentioned in these things, but that’s the way it goes. I never knew they referred to it as “The Blossom Shot”. I knew it as md09. Imageworks gives random names to shots and sequences in their films. md09 stood for Mongolian Dam #09. The naming of shots is not brain surgery.

Sagebrush Cantina

A color study of lunch at the Sagebrush Cantina. [LINK] The food is really pretty crappy here.

Le Beach Pawty

Jen and Carey celebrated their birthdays with a Beach Blanket Bingo [LINK] pawty.

Independence Day

People have short term memories. Every year I hear the same complaint. “We can’t see the fireworks because of the smoke. It wasn’t this bad last year.” Um, yes it was. And the year before that, and the year before that. Personally I think it makes the fireworks look cooler. All this over a 227 year old piece of paper? [LINK] Ya can’t even read the thing! The short version… “We the people don’t like your tea, having a Queen, bangers and mash, that you put “u” in words like colour, that whole lack of religious freedom thing, and lawyers who wear wigs. We’re even going rename football to soccer, and every year we will shoot red rockets that glare into the sky just so you don’t forget. Oh and that whole heavy duty tax thing which brings us back to your crappy tea. Signed, John Hancock and a bunch of other early people who write small.”

Eddie the Cat

One cool cat. As soon as I get home and open the back door, neighbor cat Eddie comes comes a runnin’. He hangs out with me a lot when I’m eating on the patio. While my Mom was visiting once she fed him some cheese and he immediately barfed it back up along with a weeks worth of hairballs. We lost our appetite right then.

Attack Of The Killer Neighbour Katt

10 second horror flick. See what happens when you’re sittin’ bored at home armed with a video camera. Fun with the neighbors cat, Nicky.

iChat AV

Yesterday Apple released their new iChat AV software and the new iSight camera. Which I had to have to add to the new 30gb iPod and Dual 1.42 machine. Apple has a lot of my money right now. Anyway, hooked the camera up, installed the software, and lo and behold less than 2 hours later someone rings me up! Tah dah, it works like a charm. I love Apple. So if ya got iChat AV and a camera send me an email.